So last night we went out to a club to see a friend’s band play.  I was sitting with Sarah catching up on a year of not seeing each other.  Suddenly a very intoxicated man came to join us.  Now to help you picture it, we are sitting at a tall bar table, but our husbands are standing a few feet away from the table.  The bar is very narrow and long.  People tend to stand close to each other. 

So our new friend is nice looking, wearing a royal blue, obviously expensive embroidered cowboy shirt.  I actually really liked his shirt.  He talks to us for a while.  We discover that he just moved back here from Chicago. 

He is a mortician.  I’ve never met  a mortician outside of the mortuary.  He choose his career path, because it was guaranteed employment.  He was a pysch major in college.  Apparently he moved back to Iowa because he was laid off–5 different times.  People are living too long he tells us. 

OK-now can’t you just see the boss calling him and saying, “I’m sorry, we have to let you go.  There aren’t enough people dying.  They are just living longer these days.”  I found this pretty funny. 

So suddenly as we are talking he realizes that Jason was hovering around him (BTW Jason was coveting his cowboy shirt-not rescuing damsels).  He asks us who is dating him.  Sarah pipes up, “Well I’m married to him.”  He rolls his eyes and uses his finger to say, “Checked off my list.”  Then he points to Todd, “And I suppose you are dating him?”  I repeat Sarah’s sentence.  He checked me off too and walked away.

All my guys went camping this weekend.  They left last night.  So I have a day “off.”  I’ve contemplated this time.   What should I do?  Should I go somewhere?  Should I hang out with friends?  I’ve probably spent almost as much time thinking about what to do, as I will have actually doing it. 

In the end I spent Friday night at the grocery store and asleep by 9:30.  Today I will pop in the theatre this morning, and spend the evening at Teen Improv.  The rest of the time?  I believe I will watch some teaching inservice DVD’s  on the Daily 5 and clean my house.

Does that sound boring to you?  I hate to say it, but it sounds delightful to me.  I will have temporary quiet and release of responsibility.  No one needing me or my attention (except for Lilo and Stitch, our dog and cat.)

I am finally getting a very special package in the mail that I have been working on for a while.  I will get all of Christmas put away once and for all.  I want to bake some cookies.  I need to call Suzanne back.  I am looking forward to today.

What would you do?

My 12 year old, N is involved in a mission project.  If you would like to read about how this started click here and here.

Update:  Last Monday we spent the day at the church.  N had organized a work day to begin creating the monster dolls that he intends to distribute to our county hospital and maybe the family homeless shelter. 

He had 24 people show up to help throughout the day.

Suzanne even came all the way from California to help!  (OK, so really she and Keb just happened to be here and we put them to work.  )

This was the hardest station, making the faces.  It takes patience. 

This was the the most popular station.  Everyone wanted to stuff the monsters.

This was one of my favorite faces (both doll and friend.)

I was a little worried when we had only completed one in the first hour and a half.

But we kept plugging away.

Altogether we created 40 monster dolls.  We still have quite a bit of fleece, so N is planning another workday.  I’m wondering how many we will end up with!

Today we are all recovering from the annual New Year’s Eve party.  My sister’s and my brother’s families come over (this year Julie came with her crew too!)  We missed my sister and my niece, but we still had a great time!

Awfully cute kids!  They really enjoyed playing the WII.

I didn’t really get a picture of all the food, but there was TONS!  We had pizza, hot wings, meatballs, french fries, cheese sticks, chips and dip, cheese and crackers, candies, and the list could go on…

Patrick and John getting ready to ring in the New Year.

Some took the horn blowing to new levels by adding the trumpet, trombone, and tuba to the festivities.

Enjoying the bubbly (Sparkling apple juice.)

Really enjoying the bubbly…

and friends

but ready to rest before we begin another blessed new year!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Welcome to the new 2008 edition of getting to know your family and friends. Here is what you are supposed to do. Change all the answers so they apply to you. Then send this to everyone on your email list. INCLUDING THE PERSON WHO SENT IT TO YOU. The easiest way to do it is to hit “forward” so you can change the answers. Have fun and be truthful!

1. What is your occupation right now?? Teaching 2nd grade

2. What color are your socks right now? black

 3. What are you listening to right now?? the sound of the furnace, my fingers tapping on the keyboard, and some court TV show upstairs

4. What was the last thing that you ate? 7 layer salad and tortilla chips (with a hint of jalapeno

5. Can you drive a stick shift??? Yes, but it has been quite a few years.  I loved my 1977 Toyota Corolla (it was gold)

 6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My husband

 7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Nope. I LOVE her. =)

8. How old are you today? 41–man I’m getting old

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV?I like the Superbowl, but that is for commercials

10. What is your favorite drink? Peach Propel or coffee with hazelnut creamer and mocha splenda

11. Have you ever dyed your hair? yes. but not for the last few years

12. Favorite food? My mom’s fried chicken

13. What is the last movie you watched? In the theatre, then it would be The City of Ember. 

14. Favorite day of the year? Christmas!!!

15. How do you vent anger? I yell.  It gets ugly.

16. What was your favorite toy as a child? pink hippopotamus (Suzanne’s answer, but mine too!) mine was (and IS) named Peggy.

17. What is your favorite season? fall

18. Cherries or Blueberries? hmmm. They’re both OK, but I’ll take RASPBERRIES. I guess I eat more blueberries.   I don’t care much for cherries.

19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? Post a comment, so I know that you visited

20. Who is the most likely to respond? I don’t know as I’m not sending it to anyone.

21. Who is least likely to respond?  I don’t know as I’m not sending it to anyone.

22. Living arrangements? I live with my husband, two boys, a crazy dog, and a mean cat.

 23. When was the last time you cried? A week ago Sunday when Mike performed the amazing monologue at church

24. What is on the floor of your closet? Everything, shoes, Christmas presents, a purse or two, and that is just my side.  Todd’s side is scarier.

25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to? Well, I’m not sending it, but Suzanne will probably be the reader I’ve known the longest (unless my cousins or Mom reads it).

26. What did you do last night? Went to bed at 8:15 after a great band concert that my boys both performed in.  E plays the sax and N plays the tuba.

27. What are you most afraid of? people I love dying

28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburger? Spicy with pepperjack cheese, and heck through on some jalapenos too!

29. Favorite dog breed? not the English Cocker Spaniel that I currently have, but my parents used to raise greyhounds and they were wonderful dogs

30. Favorite day of the week? Saturday!

 31. How many states have you lived in? three

32. Diamonds or pearls?? diamonds

 33. What is your favorite flower? daisies!!!  They are so happy.

Why do I do this to myself???

I am beginning to freak out.  I have not been home for an evening since, well I honestly can’t remember.  My tree is up, but has no ornaments.  My house is a pit.  I haven’t had time to make the presents that need made, nor wrap the ones that I have bought. 

We have done some very fun things, but I’m beginning to lose my mind.  Between the many parties, church services, meetings, theatre classes or performances, and kid commitments, I hardly have time to take a breath. 

This week we had a family Christmas party, praise team practice, church, served dinner at another church, vocabulary class, word study class, allergy shots, physical therapy, Christmas caroling with theatre kids, Boy Scouts,  a production meeting for Mulan Jr., an advertising committee meeting, birthday party for E’s friend,  Winnie-the-Pooh waitress, work Christmas party, and I babysat overnight for my darling baby nephew.  Are you tired?  I sure am.

Tomorrow we have to be at both church services to sing, and the boys are supposed to spend the day with their Sunday school class (making/eating lunch, crafts, and then caroling at a nursing home.)  We can’t.  I have to seriously put my foot down and just say no.  The rest of our week is as crazy as last week.  We need a day off (OK, at least an afternoon).  I don’t think I can physically or mentally do it.  Thank God that we get out for Christmas break on Friday.

This weekend  was one of those  that you feel like the energizer bunny.  We had to work at the opening of Winnie-the-Pooh Saturday morning.   It went off without a hitch.  I’m still in awe of the costumes and well Tigger is just too cute. 

After that we went straight to our friends Judy and Jim’s Christmas party.  The only problem was…well we were a day early.  Imagine Jim’s surprise when he opens the door and their we stand.  Judy wasn’t even home.  He’s a good sport though and Judy showed up a bit later.  We ended up having a delightful afternoon.  N had a great time making paper airplanes and trying to fly them from their upstairs into the downstairs fireplace.   Jim was encouraging him and truly I could have seen him up there joining N.  They are amazing people.  (Well they didn’t kick us out.  )

Now Saturday isn’t done yet.  I went back to the theatre for Teen Improv night.  I have to say, I really love those nights.  The kids are so excited.  Joe (the teacher) is so excited.  It’s infectious.

Sunday didn’t slow down.  We had an amazing church service that had a drama that was very inspiring, but I will blog about it tomorrow. 

After church we went to my family Christmas.  I love going to my Uncle Sam and Aunt Bobbi’s.  All my cousins are there.  We eat. My Aunt Bobbi makes wonderful food!  She made this cream puff cake that was beyond delicious.

We sing.  This is always really interesting.  My brother sings very trained almost opera style.  I sing pop.  My Uncle sings very classic church.  Then there is my sister that just wants every song to go faster.  It is almost comical.

We catch up on a year’s worth of news.  I give my cousin grief about finding out his wife is pregnant from someone at the theatre!  You get the picture. 

My sister, brother, and Todd eating.  We do a lot of that.

My cousin and her sweet new baby.

My mama and I just sitting and hanging out in the kitchen.

It was a good weekend.

Please pray for Morocco.  She lost her husband a few days ago.  For those of you that do not know her she is one of the authors of The Ommy Diaries.  She visits my blog often and my heart just aches for her.

My children approached me at the end of September with their costume wishes.  My mouth dropped open when they showed the characters they wanted to be:

This is Pit. 

This is Ike.  They are two video game characters that don’t stand a chance of being popular enough for me to buy their costumes.  The real super hero?  That would be me, if I could actually make these things.

How did I do?

I thought I did OK.  I bought the wings.  I also didn’t dye youngest son’s hair blue.  So that is what I have been doing for the last week or so. 

It was nice to take a break last night.  My Super Friend, Julie had an amazing  pre-trick or treating dinner at her house.  She had awesome food, 20 some kids, and lots of laughter from the adults.  After we ate we took the wee ones trick-or-treating.

I really wish I had a little girl to dress up like a Princess.  (SIGH!)

Too cool to dress up!    You know he wants to.

E struck a pose every time I took his picture as did our other dear friend.  Poor thing her “fashion” boots (that was what we called them in the 70’s) about killed her off.

Some teenage girls stopped to pet little Jonah.  How could you not???

My oldest isn’t in the group shot.  He ditched us to go with a friend to his first real Haunted House.  He kept repeating later, “It was scary, fun, but really scary.”  He loved it.  I thought our gaggle of kids had a pretty great time.

Happy Halloween!

Thought you might enjoy seeing some of the pictures from last night.  It was so much fun!  Every time we do one of these we just have such a great time.  We had enough food.    We also had a good turn out!   I have said it so many times before, but we have amazing volunteers at the theatre.

This is “Amy”  aka Alissa.  It was her party. 

The guy in the white hat had not acted before, but you couldn’t tell.  He acted like an old pro.  In real life he is one of the cornerstones of our theatre.  I can not say enough great things about his amazing talents.  He is our set designer, building manager, and all around great guy!

Guests that came!  Without community support we wouldn’t exist.  Thank you!

Edward Scissorhands!  A remarkable costume that makes my jaw drop. 

Austin Powers?  Nope that is just my baby brother and “Stephanie”.  Poor “Steph”  she was getting over being sick all week and was exhausted!  We really appreciated her help though.

More of our guests trying to figure out who did it.  (These guys volunteer a lot at the theatre with a lot of the grunt work.  It isn’t a lot of fun putting away chairs, tables, and repairing walls.  We are very THANKFUL that we have such talented help!)

At our last Murder Mystery this guy was such an interactive guest, we nabbed him as an actor.  After last night we will do the same with his wife next time!

A picture of my brother and I.  In the script she has a crush on “Todd”.  My brother played “Todd”.  It was kind of weird. 

We had a great time and made some cash for the theatre.  Next time it will be bigger and better!  We are doing it again on February 13th!